Hundreds of Possibilities
by thesnarkymouse
Summary: A collection of a hundred short stories involving the Lutece twins. The stories range in rating from K to T and are each based off a theme from the 100 theme writing challenge.
1. Blood

**Title: Blood**

**Rating: K+**

**Description: When Robert came through the tear, Rosalind hadn't expected his life would be in danger.**

She knew something was wrong when she saw the blood.

Rosalind had been prepared for a lot of things when her brother came through the tear into her world. She had expect him to be in a state of confusion as his mind tried to get a sense of what was happening to his body. Being transferred from one world to another wasn't something that any human being was used to doing. They theorised that Robert's brain would need time to adjust.

So when he came through the tear and immediately fell into his sister's arms she wasn't surprised by it at all. All she could think about as he mumbled incoherently into her shoulder was that it had worked, that her brother had made it across worlds safely and that they were finally together.

"We did it Robert! It worked!" She said with an almost childish excitement. She was so elated that she almost didn't notice that her left shoulder had started to become damp.

Perhaps he was drooling? That was certainly a possibility. But as she looked down at her brother's resting head her smile quickly faded away as she saw that her jacket sleeve was beginning to turn a deep shade of crimson.

It was as if someone had injected liquid nitrogen into her veins.

"Robert! Robert wake up!" She shook him, trying to get some sort of response, but his head just lolled back revealing a steady stream of red fluid coming from his nose.

Rosalind panicked, eyes searching wildly for anything that could help. She spotted the couch, which wasn't very far, but her brother was bigger than her and she had some trouble dragging his dead weight into the living room. It didn't take much time to reach it, but every second felt like a second too long, another second her brother got closer to bleeding out.

She lay him on his side, afraid he might choke on his own blood and ran to the kitchen to get a towel. When she returned his face had become paler and his breathing was rapid and shallow.

"Please," She held the the cloth to his nose, trying desperately to stop the bleeding, "Please, Robert, stay conscious!"

He mumbled something, his blue eyes staring off into space.

"Brother, please!" She could feel her eyes welling up. They were so close. She couldn't lose him now. They had just been brought together. It was her who had caused this.

It was her who had made the argument that he should be the one to come to her world. She was too afraid to do it herself. She knew there would be risky if he jumped over but she let him do it anyway. Now he might die because she was too selfish to wait. He might die because she was too selfish to be the one to go through the tear. If he died…

Robert's lids began to close as his eyes rolled back in his head..

"Brother!"

It would all be her fault.

**Author's**** Note: **The purpose of me doing these short stories is to try to understand the characters more while also practicing my writing. Because I am very new to this constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Hopeful you readers will see an improvement in quality as the stories as I get more familiar with writings these character. Thank you so much for taking the time to read.


	2. Hold My Hand

**Title: Hold My Hand**

**Rating: K**

**Description: A continuation of Blood. Robert wakes up after his trip through the tear. **

By the time Robert awoke from his deep sleep, the midday sun was already streaming through the window. He blinked, eyes slowly beginning to focusing on the the ceiling above him. Robert was filled with that special type of confusion that one feels when waking up in a place that isn't their own bedroom and, as he lay there on what felt too hard and short to be a bed, he racked his brain to remember where he was.

And then, as if a switch had been flipped, he remembered what had happened. He remembered all the tests and planning that had lead up to that one moment, the moment he would pass through the Lutece tear and meet his other self in person for the first time. He remembered walking through the tear, his sister standing on the other side with her arms outstretched, in case he became disoriented and fell over. He remembered the strange and indescribable feeling of being transferred from one world to another. But, after that, everything went foggy.

He vaguely recalled hearing his sister voice somewhere far off in the distance and him trying to call back only for his words to come out jumbled and confused.

"But it appears to have worked. The experiment was a success." Robert murmured and smiled to himself.

He tried to sit up but was immediately overcome by dizziness, and had to quickly lie down again, lest he risk passing out. Turning to the side he noticed for the first time a figure seated in a chair next to him. Blinking through the strange grey static that seemed to be clouding his vision, he saw his sister in a nearby armchair. She was sound asleep.

He reached out, somewhat timidly, and touched her hand that hung limply over one of the armrests. He wanted to make sure that she was tangible, that this wasn't another dream. And he got his answer when he gently held her small, warm hand in his larger one.

Rosalind stirred, blinking slowly before snapping her eyes open as she realized someone or something had a hold on her hand and soon realized who it was.

"Robert, you're awake." he could hear the relief in her voice.

"I am. It worked sister." He beamed and she returned his expression of joy with her own tired smile.

"Yes, it did."

They sat there in comfortable silence, just sort of marvelling at the fact that they were inhabiting the same world.

Robert was the one to break the quiet. Realizing he was still grasping his sister's hand he let it fall and proceeded to speak.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"About thirteen hours."

"And how long have you been awake?"

"For about twelve. Can you remember what happened?"

"I.." His mind seemed to go blank. He had just had it a second ago but now he couldn't remember. He was starting to feel dizzy again.

"I… we were…doing a test…"

"Don't strain yourself."

He felt something wet on his upper lip.

"You're bleeding again."

He touched under his nose lightly and saw blood on his finger tips.

"Strange. I've never gotten nosebleeds before."

"Well, you've been having quite a few of them recently, brother. Can you sit up?"

He tried and began to fall forward, but Rosalind caught him.

"Sorry. I should have had you propped up in the first place, but with you hemorrhaging the way you were I-"

"What exactly happened to me, sister?"

"I explain it to you later. Pinch your nose."

He did as she asked and she went grabbed a clean towel. He noticed several blood stained ones on the floor around them.

"Don't rub your nose." She pulled the hand he was not pinching with away and set it down by his side.

"Sorry."

As they sat there in silence, Rosalind cleaning his face with a towel in one hand and him pinching his nose to slow the bleeding, he realized her other hand was still grasping his. And despite the circumstances, he couldn't help but think that he liked it when they held hands.


	3. Cat

**Title: Cat**

**Rating: K**

**Description: Robert brings home a surprise guest after his trip to the store.**

Taking a short break from her reading, Rosalind sat quietly and listened to the downpour going on outside. It really was shaping up to be a rather large storm. She stretched, enjoying the warmth of the nearby fireplace and wondered how her brother was faring out there. He had been gone for quite some time and she was beginning to think perhaps he had decided to take shelter someplace else and wait for the rain to pass.

Rosalind got her answer when she heard the front door creak open followed by the sound of someone grumbling and cursing under their breath.

"Welcome home, brother." She called, not bothering to leave her seat. Robert grunted in reply and a moment later he came through the door to the hall and stood in the living room in front of her. Rosalind had to try not to laugh.

Robert was drenched from head to toe, cloths completely soaked through. He had left his shoes and socks by the door, as to track in as little water as possible, but the rain on his pants had already begun to drip onto the floor around his bare feet. His normally pristine hair was in disarray, strands sticking to his his damp forehead as the rest was made into a mess by the the winds. His jacket was rolled up into a ball under his arm.

"Enjoy your trip, brother?"

"Oh yes, it was just lovely." he ran his hand through his sopping hair in a futile attempt to return some order to it.

"I told you you should have taken the umbrella with you."

"I would have had it not been a perfectly clear day out when I left. The weather here changes in a bloody second."

"You would have known that had you listened to me. Did you get the components we needed?"

"No. I got a rather sidetracked."

"If the storm was so much of a problem that you couldn't get to the store you could have just returned?"

"I just told you, sister, I got sidetracked."

"By what, exactly?"

He brought the balled up coat out from under his arm and held it in front of him.

"What is that?" Rosalind questioned, eyebrow raised.

Robert sighed and started to unwrap the bundle.

Her expression became blank as she saw the small, orange thing that her brother had held in his jacket.

"It's a cat."

"I can see that. Why have you brought it into our lab?"

"I couldn't just leave it out in the storm."

"I don't see why not."

"Are you always this heartless towards animals, sister?"

"I don't remember you having any qualms about using birds or mice to test the Lutece tear."

"This is different."

"I fail to see how."

"Sister-"

"Brother. You're getting the floor wet."

Robert looked down to see a puddle forming on the floor around his feet.

"I will change and then we will continue this conversation. Please hold him."

"I will not."

"Don't be stubborn."

He thrust the damp coat into her hands and headed up stair.

The creature mewed as Rosalind placed the package on the couch beside her. It didn't take long for the tabby to wriggle his way out of the beige fabric and hop onto the floor. Rosalind was still as the feline rubbed up against her leg. She began to sneeze and shot the cat an accusing look.

Robert returned quickly, afraid that his sister might throw the poor animal out into the rain before he had finished getting changed. He had dried himself off and put on a dry pair of cloths. His hair was still a bit of a mess but at least not dripping wet anymore.

"He's fond of you." he said, leaning down to scratch the cat behind the ear before relaxing into a chair across from her.

"We're not keeping it." She sneezed again and Robert chuckled. He always found her sneezes to be rather cute despite being almost identical sounding to his own.

"It would just be for one night. I'll find someone to take him tomorrow."

"Have you forgotten that we are both allergic?"

"Just one night, Rosalind."

"Where will we put it? We can't let it wander around the lab. And it is not going in our room."

"We'll just put it in a spare room with a towel to sleep on."

The cat which had been rubbing it's cheek against the leg of Robert's chair moved back over to Rosalind and looked up at her with large, green eyes. Rosalind stared back indifferently as the cat mewed and began nuzzled into her leg once more.

"We don't have anything to feed it."

"I'll leave it a bowl of milk. That will do for tonight. Please sister?"

She looked back up at her brother. He was pleading with her now.

She sighed.

"Fine, but you are getting rid of that thing tomorrow."

Robert beamed and scooped the creature up from the floor.

"You are much too sentimental, brother."

"Yes, I know. I will make it up to you. I promise." he said, kissing Rosalind lightly on the forehead.

"I shan't forget." She replied with a small smile as she listened to her brother climb the stairs, sneezing the entire way up.


	4. Tower

**Title: Tower**

**Rating: K**

**Description: Robert observes the girl at the top of the tower.**

In the dimly lit room, behind the two way mirror, Robert Lutece watched as the young, raven haired girl drew. Cameras stood on either side of him, all pointed towards the the child, watching every moment of her life, but they were off now. He had turned them off.

He was alone in one of those rare moments where he and his sister were not together. She had given Robert a quizzical when he said he had something he needed to do and that she should go home ahead him. She must of know what he was doing, maybe not why, but she must to have known what, yet all she did was shrug and told him not to take too long. As soon as she left Robert headed towards the elevator and took his trip up to top of the tower. No one questioned him, he and his sister were the head scientists after all, but he was questioning himself as he exit and made his way to the dining room viewing area and pulled the lever that opened the window through which he could observe her.

Her back was facing him and over her shoulder he could see a childish depiction of the winged beast that guarded her. She was becoming quite the artist, despite seeming to draw only one thing, and he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of pride, despite himself. Robert wondered if perhaps he could convince his sister to place an easel for the girl, along with some books on the basis of painting so she that she might get the chance explore her talents as much as she could without proper lessons.

The girl got up and placed her artwork up on the wall next to the others before standing back with hands on her hips. She turned around, facing the glass, a little triumphant grin on her face and Robert smiled back, pretending for a second that the girl was seeing his approval rather than her own reflection.

A simple toon began to to play, high pitch and cheerful, off in the distance and the girl, eyes full of excitement, bounded off towards the sound. Robert followed at a slower pace and made his way to the library observation room where he witnessed the mechanical songbird enter with something held in its hands. The girl jumped up and down, impatient to see what new trinkets from the outside world the creature had brought. Today it was three books, all part of the Dimwit & Duke child propaganda series, and while she seemed to love her present, Robert was glad that at least some of the libraries contents were chosen by him and his sister.

The girl hugged the bird's massive wrist and began to tell it about her day excitedly, despite all her days being relatively the same. She chatted and the songbird chirped shrilly in response and Robert watch as this part loyal pet, part guardian, part warden, patted her gently on the head. She grabbed its finger with her tiny hand and led it to the other room to show off her drawings.

Robert stared at the empty room and wondered when the girl would begin to see Fink's creation as her captor rather than her friend, when she would grow weary of her life alone in the tower and dream of escape. He knew it was only a matter of time, but what would happen then, he was unsure. As he headed back the way he came the old regret that he always tried to push down came bubbling back up again, stronger with each wave, and Robert wondered how many more times he could see this girl locked away like this and not have the guilt overtake him. He knew it was only a matter of time.


	5. Can you hear me?

**Title: Can you hear me?**

**Rating: K**

**Description: Rosalind finds a way to communicate with Robert through the wall.**

Dots and dashes. That was all they had. And while the process of sending messages via quantum atom was painfully slow, it something that that Rosalind would spend hour upon hour, day upon day, doing. Because being able to not only communicate with someone from another universe, but that universe's version of herself, was something that had only been a dream up until this point.

The odds of her other self testing the same atom that she herself had been testing at the same exact time was so minuscule that Rosalind saw passing up the opportunity as a scientific sin. Thought Robert, that was what her other called himself, mention that, perhaps, it wasn't just a coincidence.

"Surely it makes more sense for the same people to be doing the same thing at the same time," Robert once tapped out through the the wall of space and time that divided them "than for them not to be."

Perhaps he was right, but still, the thought that this cross universal conversation could have very likely never of happened filled Rosalind with a strange sort of dread that was hard for her to describe.

Had she been someone else she might have reported her findings to her peers, but she didn't. For some reason she couldn't quite pinpoint she wanted to keep this experiment secret. It felt sacred to her, in a way. Something only to be shared between herself and her other self. She was protective of him. Not in the way a sibling or mother or lover is. No, this was more instinctual. She was protective in the way that one is of ones own body.

So they continued whisper through the wall, but as time went on they longed for more. While grateful for what they had, they were scientists nonetheless, and a scientist can not be content with how far they have progressed. They had to go farther. They had to see one another.

Rosalind told herself it was for science, and while that wasn't a lie, it wasn't entirely true either. Deep down, it was about filling the emptiness, the loneliness one feels when they realize that, no matter how close you are to someone, that person will never truly understand you. It was a problem she realized at a young age. When her mother told her that her dreams of becoming a physicist were stupid, unrealistic dreams for a young lady to have. When her peers, so clouded by their own ignorant ideas on what a woman should be, refused to take any of her findings seriously. When she dreamt she was looking in a mirror and saw a reflection that was both herself and not herself and knew that that reflection was the closest thing she had to a friend. But finally she had found the solution.

She worked tirelessly, day and night, to figure out a way to make a stable tear between worlds. She built a machine, too big for the building that housed it, using some of the funding that Comstock had given her. It was tough work to do alone but she was used to it. And, after much effort, it was ready. Both of them waited at their respective ends, nervous excitement filling their stomachs. Rosalind flipped the switch.

The tear was unstable. It showed up, just a sliver in space. It was there for a second, then gone. But through the grey, staticy haze of the tear, in the split second as it closed into empty space, they caught a glimpse each others eyes and that was enough to keep Rosalind going.

Through trial and error, experiments and adjustments, Rosalind was able to create bigger, more stable tears. It took five failed attempts, but on the six the tear held.

It was about the size of one of those oval mirrors that are often hung on walls. They waited, taking in the sight of themselves, expecting the hole to close at any moment. But after five minutes without the it shrinking or closing altogether it was confirmed that the tear would hold. At least, for a little while longer.

It was truly amazing how despite being of a different sex they were still so similar in appearance. Same eyes, same hair, same face shape. It truly was like Rosalind's childhood dream.

They both opened their mouths, as if to speak before closing them. They had talked to each other but never with their own voices. Just dots and dashes. But that ended today.

"Can you hear me?" Rosalind said, voice even despite her nerves.

The corners of her other's lips turned up, as if trying to hold back a grin.

"Yes."


End file.
